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Seeing Red

The state of Utah is touted as being the reddest state in America. When I was in high school, in the 1950s, we were taught that red governments would destroy and enslave the peoples of the world: red China, red Russia, red Cuba.

Now, we have our elected officials claiming that Utah is the reddest state in the Union. I do believe it is the truth.

Congress is at an impasse in Washington—the reds against the blues, so engrossed in their own agendas that they have lost the ability to govern.

We the people keep putting the same jesters back in political office, term after term. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is telling us that if he is re-elected, he can help balance the budget. He already has had 35 years to help create the problem. Will six more years of him make a difference? I don’t think so.

The citizens of Utah are so crippled by the caucus process that they really have no voice. Those who are neither red nor blue have little to say about the Utah government. Not only is it impossible to have a voice, the LDS Church, though it will not acknowledge it, glows red. Will more people at political caucus make a difference? What a laugh!

If the citizens of Utah could become red, white and blue—or real Americans—there might be a chance of change.

On Utah’s Capitol Hill, the red party is running the government of Utah. Does that not bring fear to all in Utah? The red of today is not much different from the red of the 1950s.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, stated: “[Washington is] a mess. It’s an absolute disaster. … Obviously, the federal government is not living within its means.”

Blame our present president for the continuing destruction of our country—I do not think so! Remember George W. Bush and his inept administration? Four Utah congressional representatives, now in Washington, are red and have been in office with or before the present president.

Both the Utah and U.S. governments have been robbed of credibility and common sense. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg stated Feb. 11, 2010, in a Salt Lake City newspaper that countries in the Middle East and elsewhere considering creating new constitutions were looking at more current models in addition to the U.S. Constitution. “If you’re writing a constitution today, are you going to look back at an 18th-century model?” she asks, citing South Africa’s 1996 constitution and Canada’s 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedom as examples of newer documents.

We have lost so much credibility in our government that now we have learned to expect very little from it. Who is to blame? There is enough for all of us to share.

Will we continue to elect the same people who have failed us? The sad truth is that we will. In Utah, we are red—fire red, rednecks, red-handed. I never thought the day would come where I would question if things would be better if we could say, “God save the King.”